1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system diagnostics, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system external graphics box local diagnostic message.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems often interact with a number of peripherals to present, communicate, print or otherwise process information. For instance, information handling systems typically present information as visual images at an external display. Generally, visual information is generated at a central processing unit (CPU) and communicated through an internal bus, such as a PCI Express (PCIe) bus, to a graphics card. At the graphics card, a graphics processor unit (GPU) renders the visual information to define the color for presentation at each pixel of a display. The pixel-level information is then communicated from the graphics card through an external cable, such as a DVI or VGA cable, to an external display for presentation of visual images. Generally, a powerful GPU provides improved rendering of visual images by shifting processing of images from the CPU. For applications that rely on presentation of complex images, such as gaming or CAD applications, specialized components of a graphics card bear a substantial burden during the generation of visual images, thus freeing the CPU to perform other tasks. Relegating graphics processing to a graphics card GPU distributes tasks to allow for more efficient operation of an information handling system.
In some instances, the graphics processing capability desired for an information handling system places a substantial burden on the cooling and power budgets of the information handling system. For instance, a powerful graphics card can consume in excess of 150 Watts of power and produce a great amount of heat as a by product of the high power consumption. Although an information handling system chassis may be designed to manage such high power consumption and heat production, the expense of such a design is typically not justified by the relatively few number of systems purchased with such high graphics processing capability. As a compromise, information handling system manufacturers instead have shifted the graphics processing from the information handling system chassis to the display unit itself in an external graphics box architecture. For instance, a PCIe bus extends from an information handling system through an external cable to a graphics card of the external graphics box. The external graphics box has cooling and power subsystems that are independent of the information handling system so that powerful graphics processing capability is supported without burdening the information handling system cooling and power subsystems. One difficulty with the external graphics box architecture is that, if the host information handling system becomes disabled preventing communication across the PCIe cable link, the external graphics box will either freeze on the last displayed screen or go blank making it impossible for the end user to determine whether the host or the external graphics box is at fault.